Prof Chris Whitty: the expert we need in the coronavirus crisis

Even No 10 has realised the value of the 'impressive' chief medical officer for England

Coronavirus - all the latest developments

To the broader public, Professor Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, has emerged as the calm voice of authority, the clear-headed expert at the helm of the nation's strategy to fend off coronavirus. But in medical circles, Whitty has long been regarded as a legend. Those who work with him speak in glowing terms: amazing, extraordinary, fantastic, brilliant, though perhaps not so good at tennis.

Such plaudits were not always on the cards, it seems. In a lecture at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, soon after he was made a professor there, Whitty put up a copy of his school report. "Don't think about sending this boy to university, he can barely read," one audience member recalls it saying.